Tide inks number one class, again

Wednesday

Feb 6, 2013 at 9:38 PM

There was no drama, nor any big surprise. National Signing Day for the University of Alabama was relatively stress-free. Every player who committed to the Crimson Tide ultimately signed with UA, and Alabama was able to land a trio of coveted up-for-grabs, top-tier recruits who didn't make their intentions known until Wednesday. And if there is one thing that shouldn't have been a surprise, it was that Alabama, at the end of the day, had finished No. 1 in the national recruiting team rankings for the third year in a row and fifth time in the past six years, all under head coach Nick Saban.

By Tommy DeasExecutive Sports Editor

TUSCALOOSA | There was no drama, nor any big surprise.National Signing Day for the University of Alabama was relatively stress-free. Every player who committed to the Crimson Tide ultimately signed with UA, and Alabama was able to land a trio of coveted up-for-grabs, top-tier recruits who didn't make their intentions known until Wednesday.And if there is one thing that shouldn't have been a surprise, it was that Alabama, at the end of the day, had finished No. 1 in the national recruiting team rankings for the third year in a row and fifth time in the past six years, all under head coach Nick Saban.In fact, the Crimson Tide didn't even have to wait until the end of the day to claim the recruiting crown. Rivals.com proclaimed Alabama No. 1 in mid-afternoon, after Alvin Kamara, the No. 2-ranked all-purpose running back in the country, signed in Norcross, Ga. Less than half an hour later, A'Shawn Robinson, a five-star defensive lineman from Texas, joined UA's signing-day haul.Neither Kamara nor Robinson had publicly committed to Alabama before signing day, nor had Dee Liner, a four-star defensive lineman from Muscle Shoals who also picked the Crimson Tide on Wednesday. The trio gave Alabama, already angling to compete for the national recruiting crown, a strong finish — but Saban, as always, was more focused on the process than in arbitrary rankings.“We certainly like the guys that we got,” Saban said. “They've shown a lot of potential to this point. They've been very successful in their production and performance. We feel like we have a really good character class, which is important to us, and we got a lot of guys who are the size and speed we want to play the positions we recruited them for. In some cases, we recruited athletes.”Ole Miss' sudden and surprising rise as a recruiting force grabbed a lot of headlines on signing day, but Alabama's continued dominance on the recruiting trail leaves lasting impressions.“If it hadn't been for that school in Oxford, Miss., and what they did with getting their five-stars, Alabama, Alabama, Alabama would be all the talk,” said Kynon Codrington, Rivals.com Southeast Recruiting Analyst. “I think some people get sick of it, but you look at what they're doing and they're head and shoulders above everybody else in the country.“They're about as close to a well-oiled machine as there is in the college game right now. To be back-to-back BCS national champions, back-to-back Rivals recruiting champions, the formula is pretty simple — they've got the best players in the game, the best coach in the game.”Where there was opportunity for drama on signing day, none appeared.Altee Tenpenny, a four-star running back from North Little Rock, Ark., who committed to UA early in the process, never wavered under pressure to switch to his home-state school, Arkansas, even after the Razorbacks hired new coach Bret Bielema, who came in with a strong run-first background. Tenpenny transmitted his scholarship papers early enough Wednesday that no one had time to wonder if he might be contemplating a last-minute switch.Linebacker Reuben Foster — the player who committed early to UA, switched to Auburn and then dropped the Tigers after they fired their coaching staff — committed to Alabama on live television Monday night. He showed up for his signing ceremony decked out in the same gear Saban often wears to practice, including the straw hat, and signed with the Crimson Tide.He also issued, via Twitter, an apology to Alabama fans: “Tide Nation I would like to apologize to y'all and I'm sorry for being the brat I was. SORRY! But HEY I'm back HOME and hope yAll accept me!”Alabama did have misses — Antonio Conner, a four-star safety, stayed in-state and signed with Ole Miss; Montravius Adams, a five-star defensive tackle from Georgia, signed with Auburn; Jarran Reed, a three-star junior college defensive tackle, opted for Florida — but whether Alabama had room to take them in the end could have been part of the equation in their final choices.Alabama also missed on its final chance to add to the already-impressive recruiting class when five-star defensive tackle Eddie Vanderdoes of California chose Notre Dame over Alabama and UCLA.While much of the attention on signing day was focused on those few highly sought recruits who had not yet made their intentions known, Alabama went into Wednesday with an already-formidable class assembled. Tight end O.J. Howard, defensive end Jonathan Allen, quarterback Cooper Bateman, wideout Robert Foster and running back Derrick Henry, to name a few, already had the Crimson Tide's class ranked among the nation's elite.“Whenever you can get recruits to come in and have a great class, it means a lot,” Howard said. “This is how you keep winning championships. You can't just start rebuilding, so it means a lot to me.”Said Codrington, “They started this run a year ago. It's just the culmination of what they did to finish it out.”